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The Shuttle Chapter 13 - One of the New York Dresses · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

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  Speaker 1: CHAPTER XIII. ONE OF THE NEW YORK DRESSES As she
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  Speaker 1: went down the staircase later on her way to dinner,
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  Speaker 1: Miss Vanderpool saw on all sides signs of the extent
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  Speaker 1: of the nakedness of the land. She was in a
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  Speaker 1: fine old house, stripped of most of its saleable belongings,
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  Speaker 1: uncared for, deteriorating year by year, gradually going to ruin.
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  Speaker 1: One need not possess particular keenness of sight to observe this,
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  Speaker 1: and she had chanced to see old houses in like
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  Speaker 1: condition in other countries than England. A man-servant in a
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  Speaker 1: shabby livery opened the drawing-room door for her. He was
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  Speaker 1: not a picturesque servitor of fallen fortunes, but an awkward
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  Speaker 1: person who was not accustomed to his duties. Betty wondered
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  Speaker 1: if he had been called in from the gardens to
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  Speaker 1: meet the necessities of the moment. His furtive glance at
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  Speaker 1: the tall young woman who passed him took in with
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  Speaker 1: sudden embarrassment, the fact that she plainly did not belong
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  Speaker 1: to the dispirited world bounded by stornham court without sparkling
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  Speaker 1: gems or trailing richness in her wake she was suggestively
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  Speaker 1: splendid he did not know whether it was her hair
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  Speaker 1: or the build of her neck and shoulders that did
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  Speaker 1: it but it was revealed to him that tiaras and
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  Speaker 1: collars of stones which blazed belonged without doubt to her
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  Speaker 1: equipment he recalled that there was a legend to the
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  Speaker 1: effect that the present lady anstruthers who looked like a
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  Speaker 1: rag doll had been the daughter of a rich american
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  Speaker 1: and that better things might have been expected of her
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  Speaker 1: if she had not been such a poor-spirited creature if
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  Speaker 1: this was her sister she perhaps was a young woman
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  Speaker 1: of fortune and that she was not of poor spirit
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  Speaker 1: was plain the large drawing-room presented but another aspect of
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  Speaker 1: the bareness of the rest of the house in times
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  Speaker 1: probably long past possibly in the dowager lady anstruthers early
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  Speaker 1: years of marriage the walls had been hung with white
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  Speaker 1: and gold paper of a pattern which dominated the scene
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  Speaker 1: and had been furnished with gilded chairs, tables, and ottomans.
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  Speaker 1: Some of these last had evidently been removed as they
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  Speaker 1: became too much out of repair for use or ornament.
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  Speaker 1: Such as remained, tarnished as to gilding and worn in
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  Speaker 1: the matter of upholstery, stood sparsely scattered on a desert
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  Speaker 1: of carpet, whose huge flowered medallions had faded almost from view.
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  Speaker 1: Lady Anstruthers, looking shy and awkward as she fingered an
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  Speaker 1: ornament on a small table, seemed singularly a part of
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  Speaker 1: her background. Her evening dress, slipping off her thin shoulders,
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  Speaker 1: was as faded and out of date as her carpet.
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  Speaker 1: It had once been delicately blue and gauzy, but its
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  Speaker 1: gauziness hung in crushed folds, and its blue was almost grey.
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  Speaker 1: It was also the dress of a girl, not that
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  Speaker 1: of a colourless worn woman, and her consciousness of its
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  Speaker 1: unfitness showed in her small-featured face as she came forward.'
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  Speaker 1: Do you recognise it, Betty?' she asked hesitatingly.' It was
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  Speaker 1: one of my New York dresses.' I put it on
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  Speaker 1: because— because— and her stammering ended helplessly. Because you wanted to remind me,
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  Speaker 1: Betty said. If she felt it easier to begin with
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  Speaker 1: an excuse, she should be provided with one. Perhaps but
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  Speaker 1: for this readiness to fall into any tone she chose
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  Speaker 1: to adopt, Rosie might have endeavoured to carry her poor
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  Speaker 1: farce on. But as it was, she suddenly gave it up.
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  Speaker 1: I put it on because I have no other, she said.
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  Speaker 1: We never have visitors, and I haven't dressed for dinner
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  Speaker 1: for so long that I seem to have nothing left
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  Speaker 1: that is fit to wear. I dragged this out because
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  Speaker 1: it was better than anything else. It was pretty once,
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  Speaker 1: she gave a little laugh. Twelve years ago. How long
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  Speaker 1: years seem. Was I— was I pretty, Betty, twelve years ago?
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  Speaker 1: Twelve years is not such a long time. Betty took
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  Speaker 1: her hand and drew her to a sofa. Let us
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  Speaker 1: sit down and talk about it. There is nothing much
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  Speaker 1: to talk about. This is it. Taking in the room
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  Speaker 1: with a wave of her hand. I am it. Uhtred
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  Speaker 1: is it. Then let us talk about England, was Bettina's
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  Speaker 1: light skim over the thin ice. A red spot grew
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  Speaker 1: on each of Lady Anstruther's cheekbones and made her faded
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  Speaker 1: eyes look intense. Let us talk about America. Her little
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  Speaker 1: bird claw of a hand, clinging feverishly. Is New York
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  Speaker 1: still— still—' It is still there,' Betty answered with one of
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  Speaker 1: the adorable smiles which showed a deep dimple near her lip.'
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  Speaker 1: But it is much nearer England than it used to be.'' Nearer?'
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  Speaker 1: The hand tightened as Rosie caught her breath. Betty bent
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  Speaker 1: rather suddenly and kissed her. It was the easiest way
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  Speaker 1: of hiding the look she knew had risen to her eyes.
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  Speaker 1: She began to talk gaily, half laughingly.' It' s quite near,'
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  Speaker 1: she said.' Don' t you realize it? Americans swoop over here
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  Speaker 1: by thousands every year.' They come for business, they come
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  Speaker 1: for pleasure, they come for rest. They cannot keep away.
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  Speaker 1: They come to buy and sell pictures and books and
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  Speaker 1: luxuries and lands. They come to give and take. They
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  Speaker 1: are building a bridge from shore to shore of their
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  Speaker 1: work and their thoughts and their plannings, out of the
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  Speaker 1: lives and souls of them. It will be a great
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  Speaker 1: bridge and great things will pass over it. She kissed
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  Speaker 1: the faded cheek again. She wanted to sweep Rosie away
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  Speaker 1: from the dreariness of it. Lady Anstruthers looked at her
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  Speaker 1: with faintly smiling eyes. She didn't follow all this quite readily,
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  Speaker 1: but she felt pleased and vaguely comforted.' I know how
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  Speaker 1: they come here and marry,' she said.' The new Duchess
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  Speaker 1: of Downs is an American. She has a fortune of
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  Speaker 1: two million pounds.'' If she chooses to rebuild a great
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  Speaker 1: house and a great name,' said Betty, lifting her shoulders lightly,'
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  Speaker 1: why not, if it's an honest bargain? I suppose it's
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  Speaker 1: part of the building of the bridge.' Little Lady Amstruthers,
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  Speaker 1: trying to pull up the sleeves of the gauzy bodice
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  Speaker 1: slipping off her small sharp bones, stared at her half
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  Speaker 1: in wondering adoration, half in alarm.' Betty, you are so
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  Speaker 1: handsome and so clever and strange,' she fluttered.' Oh, Betty,
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  Speaker 1: stand up so that I can see how tall and
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  Speaker 1: handsome you are.' Betty did as she was told, and
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  Speaker 1: upon her feet she was a young woman of long
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  Speaker 1: lines and fine curves so inspiring to behold. that Lady
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  Speaker 1: Anstruthers clasped her hands together on her knees in an
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  Speaker 1: excited gesture.' Oh, yes, oh, yes!' she cried.' You' re just
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  Speaker 1: as wonderful as you looked when I turned and saw
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  Speaker 1: you under the trees. You almost make me feel afraid.''
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  Speaker 1: Because I'm wonderful,' said Betty,' then I will not be
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  Speaker 1: wonderful any more.'' It' s not because I think you wonderful,
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  Speaker 1: but because other people will. Would you rebuild a great house?' hesitatingly.
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  Speaker 1: The fine line of Betty's black brows drew itself slightly together.' No,'
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  Speaker 1: she said.' Wouldn' t you?'' How could the man who owned
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  Speaker 1: it persuade me that he was in earnest if he
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  Speaker 1: said he loved me? How could I persuade him that
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  Speaker 1: I was worth caring for and not a mere ambitious fool?
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  Speaker 1: There would be too much against us.'' Against you?' repeated
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  Speaker 1: Lady Anstruthers.' I don't say I'm fair,' said Betty.' People
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  Speaker 1: who are proud are often not fair, but we should
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  Speaker 1: both of us have seen and known too much.'' You
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  Speaker 1: have seen me now,' said Lady Amstruthers in her listless voice,
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  Speaker 1: and at the same moment dinner was announced and she
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  Speaker 1: got up from the sofa, so that luckily there was
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  Speaker 1: no time for the impersonal answer it would have been
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  Speaker 1: difficult to invent at a moment's notice. As they went
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  Speaker 1: into the dining-room Betty was thinking restlessly. She remembered all
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  Speaker 1: the material she had collected during her education in France
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  Speaker 1: and Germany— and there was added to it the fact
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  Speaker 1: that she had seen rosy and having her before her
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  Speaker 1: eyes she felt that there was small prospect of her
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  Speaker 1: contemplating the rebuilding of any great house requiring reconstruction there
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  Speaker 1: was fine panelling in the dining-room and a great fireplace
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  Speaker 1: and a few family portraits the service upon the table
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  Speaker 1: was shabby and the dinner was not a bounteous meal
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  Speaker 1: lady anstruthers in her girlish gauzy dress and looking too
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  Speaker 1: small for her big high-backed chair tried to talk rapidly
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  Speaker 1: and every few minutes forgot herself and sank into silence
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  Speaker 1: with her eyes unconsciously fixed upon her sister's face utrid
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  Speaker 1: watched betty also and with a hungry questioning the man-servant
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  Speaker 1: in the worn livery was not a sufficiently well-trained and
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  Speaker 1: experienced domestic to make any effort to keep his eyes
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  Speaker 1: from her he was young enough to be excited by
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  Speaker 1: an innovation so unusual as the presence of a young
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  Speaker 1: and beautiful person surrounded by an unmistakable atmosphere of ease
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  Speaker 1: and fearlessness He had been talking of her below stairs,
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  Speaker 1: and felt that he had failed in describing her. He
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  Speaker 1: had found himself barely supported by the suggestion of a
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  Speaker 1: housemaid that sometimes these dresses that looked plain had been
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  Speaker 1: made in Paris at expensive places, and had cost a lot.
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  Speaker 1: He furtively examined the dress, which looked plain, and while
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  Speaker 1: he admitted that for some mysterious reason it might represent expensiveness,
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  Speaker 1: it was not the dress which was the secret of
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  Speaker 1: the effect, but a something, not altogether mere good looks,
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  Speaker 1: expressed by the wearer. It was, in fact, the thing
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  Speaker 1: which the second-class passenger, Salter, had been at once attracted
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  Speaker 1: and stirred to rebellion by when Miss Vanderpool came on
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  Speaker 1: board the Meridiana. Betty did not look too small for
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  Speaker 1: her high-backed chair, and she did not forget herself when
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  Speaker 1: she talked. In spite of all she had found, her
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  Speaker 1: imagination was stirred by the surroundings. Her sense of the
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  Speaker 1: fine spaces and possibilities of dignity in the barren house,
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  Speaker 1: her knowledge that outside the windows there lay stretched broad
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  Speaker 1: views of the park and its heavy branched trees, and
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  Speaker 1: that outside the gate stood the neglected picturesqueness of the
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  Speaker 1: village in all the rural and, to her, interesting life
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  Speaker 1: it slowly lived, this pleased and attracted her. If she
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  Speaker 1: had been as helpless and discouraged as Rosalie, she could
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  Speaker 1: see that it would all have meant a totally different
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  Speaker 1: and depressing thing, but strong and spirited, and with the
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  Speaker 1: power of full hands, she was remotely rejoicing in what
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  Speaker 1: might be done with it all. As she talked, she
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  Speaker 1: was gradually learning detail. Sir Nigel was on the Continent.
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  Speaker 1: Apparently he often went... there. Also it revealed itself that
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  Speaker 1: no one knew at what moment he might return, for
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  Speaker 1: what reason he would return, or if he would return
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  Speaker 1: at all during the summer. It was evident that no
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  Speaker 1: one had been at any time encouraged to ask questions
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  Speaker 1: as to his intentions, or to feel that they had
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  Speaker 1: a right to do so. This she knew, and a
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  Speaker 1: number of other things, before they left the table. When
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  Speaker 1: they did so, they went out to stroll upon the
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  Speaker 1: moss-grown stone terrace, and listened to the nightingales throwing into
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  Speaker 1: the air silver fountains of trilling song. When Bettina paused,
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  Speaker 1: leaning against the balustrade of the terrace, that she might
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  Speaker 1: hear all the beauty of it, and feel all the
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  Speaker 1: beauty of the warm spring night, Rosie went on making
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  Speaker 1: her effort to talk.' It' s not much of a neighbourhood, Betty,'
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  Speaker 1: she said.' You' re too accustomed to livelier places to like it.''
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  Speaker 1: That is my reason for feeling that I shall like it.'
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  Speaker 1: I don't think I could be called a lively person,'
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  Speaker 1: and I rather hate lively places.'' But you are accustomed—'' Accustomed!'
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  Speaker 1: Rosie harked back uncertainly.' I have been accustomed to wishing
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  Speaker 1: I could come to you,' said Betty,' and now I
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  Speaker 1: am here.' Lady Anstruthers laid a hand on her dress.''
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  Speaker 1: I can't believe it, I can't believe it,' she breathed.'
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  Speaker 1: You will believe it,' said Betty, drawing the hand around
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  Speaker 1: her waist and enclosing in her own arm the narrow shoulders.'
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  Speaker 1: Tell me about the neighbourhood.'' There isn't any, really,' said
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  Speaker 1: Lady Anstruthers.' The houses are so far away from each other.'
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  Speaker 1: The nearest is six miles from here, and it is
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  Speaker 1: one that doesn't count.'' Why?'' There is no family, and
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  Speaker 1: the man who owns it is so poor.' It's a
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  Speaker 1: big place, but it's falling to pieces as this is.
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  Speaker 1: What is it called? Mount Dunstan. The present Earl only
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  Speaker 1: succeeded about three years ago. Nigel doesn't know him. He's
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  Speaker 1: queer and not liked. He's been away. Where? No one knows.
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  Speaker 1: To Australia or somewhere. He has odd ideas. The Mount
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  Speaker 1: Dunstans have been awful people for two generations. This man's
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  Speaker 1: father was almost mad with wickedness. So was the eldest son.
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  Speaker 1: This is a second son, and he came into nothing
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  Speaker 1: but debt. Perhaps he feels the disgrace, and it makes
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  Speaker 1: him rude and ill-tempered. His father and elder brother had
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  Speaker 1: been in such scandals that people did not invite them.
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  Speaker 1: Do they invite this man? No, he probably wouldn't go
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  Speaker 1: to their houses if they did, and he went away
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  Speaker 1: soon after he came into the title. Is the place beautiful?
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  Speaker 1: There's a fine deer park, and the gardens were wonderful
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  Speaker 1: a long time ago. The house is worth looking at outside.''
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  Speaker 1: I will go and look at it,' said Betty.' The
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  Speaker 1: carriage is out of order. There is only Uhtred's cart.''
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  Speaker 1: I' m a good walker,' said Betty.' Are you? It would
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  Speaker 1: be twelve miles there and back. When I was in
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  Speaker 1: New York people didn't walk much, particularly girls.'' They do now,'
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  Speaker 1: Betty answered.' They have learned to do it in England.
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  Speaker 1: They live out of doors and play games. They have
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  Speaker 1: grown athletic and tall.' As they talked the nightingales sang,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes near, sometimes in the distance, and scents of dewy
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  Speaker 1: grass and leaves and earth were wafted towards them. Sometimes
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  Speaker 1: they strolled up and down the terrace, sometimes they paused
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  Speaker 1: and leaned against the stone balustrade. Betty allowed Rosie to
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  Speaker 1: talk as she chose. She herself asked no obviously leading questions,
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  Speaker 1: and passed over trying moments with likeness. Her desire was
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  Speaker 1: to place herself in a position where she might hear
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  Speaker 1: the things which would aid her to draw conclusions. Lady
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  Speaker 1: Anstruthers gradually grew less nervous and afraid of her subjects.
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  Speaker 1: In the wonder of the luxury of talking to someone
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  Speaker 1: who listened with sympathy, she once or twice almost forgot
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  Speaker 1: herself and made revelations she had not intended to make.
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  Speaker 1: She had often the manner of a person who was
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  Speaker 1: afraid of being overheard. Sometimes, even when she was making
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  Speaker 1: speeches quite simple in themselves— Her voice dropped and she
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  Speaker 1: glanced furtively aside, as if there were chances that something
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  Speaker 1: she dreaded might step out of the shadow. When they
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  Speaker 1: went upstairs together and parted for the night, the clinging
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  Speaker 1: of Rosie's embrace was for a moment almost convulsive, but
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  Speaker 1: she tried to laugh off its suggestion of intensity.' I
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  Speaker 1: held you tight so that I could feel sure you
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  Speaker 1: were real and would not melt away,' she said.' I
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  Speaker 1: hope you will be here in the morning.'' I shall
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  Speaker 1: never really go quite away again now I have come,'
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  Speaker 1: Betty answered. It is not only your house I have
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  Speaker 1: come to, I have come back into your life.' After
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  Speaker 1: she had entered her room and locked the door, she
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  Speaker 1: sat down and wrote a letter to her father. It
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  Speaker 1: was a long letter, but a clear one. She painted
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  Speaker 1: a definite and detailed picture, and made distinct her chief point.'
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  Speaker 1: She is afraid of me,' she wrote.' That is the
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  Speaker 1: first and worst obstacle. She is actually afraid that I
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: will do something which will only add to her trouble.'
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  Speaker 1: She has lived under dominion so long that she has
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  Speaker 1: forgotten that there are people who have no reason to fear.
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  Speaker 1: Her old life seems nothing but a dream. The first
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  Speaker 1: thing I must teach her is that I am to
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  Speaker 1: be trusted not to do futile things, and that she
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  Speaker 1: need neither be afraid of nor for me.' After writing
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  Speaker 1: these sentences, she found herself leaving her desk and walking
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  Speaker 1: up and down the room to relieve herself. She could
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  Speaker 1: not sit still, because suddenly the blood ran fast and
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  Speaker 1: hot through her veins.' she put her hands against her
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  Speaker 1: cheeks and laughed a little low laugh i feel violent
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: she said i feel violent and i must get over
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  Speaker 1: it this is rage rage is worth nothing it was
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  Speaker 1: rage the rage of splendid hot blood which surged in
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  Speaker 1: answer to leaping hot thoughts there would have been a
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  Speaker 1: sort of luxury in giving way to the sway of
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: it but the self-indulgence would have been no aid to
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: future action rage was worth nothing she said it as
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: the first reuben vanderpoel might have said of a useless
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  Speaker 1: but glittering weapon this gun is worth nothing and cast
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  Speaker 1: it aside chapter